


Much-Welcomed Complications

by TwilightLegacy13



Category: The Witchlands Series - Susan Dennard
Genre: Fluff, Gift Fic, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:15:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28461516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightLegacy13/pseuds/TwilightLegacy13
Summary: In the midst of the magic and war of the Witchlands, a mountain bat and a little girl find one another.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	Much-Welcomed Complications

**Author's Note:**

  * For [insertfruitpun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/insertfruitpun/gifts).



> A New Year's present for insertfruitpun, about her (and everyone else's) favorite mountain bat! I hope you like it :D 
> 
> (Also, the "scheduling" thing works way differently than I thought it did so oops lol, it's before your midnight that this will be posted but still!)
> 
> Content warnings: Very brief mentions of injury and child neglect.

The world was a beautifully complicated place. Two high rivers passed one another at a city built up from the water, and in all directions away from that city’s crossroads were lands of such widely varying scenery that they might have been from different continents themselves. To the south were dense forests, home to a striking and sometimes deadly waterfall tucked within the jungle. To the west was a land barren and dead until reaching the sea, and past that a bustling city of trade and opportunity. To the north were mountains so cold and inhospitable that it was unwise for any human or animal to settle there, although they did regardless; and further north lay vast, open plains known well for their fierce winds and fiercer still residents. To the west was a desert so expansive that it was like another sea in itself, harsh in its heat and endlessness.

And in the sky, soaring above this dizzying world and all that was in it? There flew a mountain bat.

He had come far indeed from the northwestern homeland to his kind. It was for the best, though—the longer he remained in those snowy mountains, the higher the risk that someone would have noticed his presence there. There were two children in particular who had, on more than one occasion, come close to spying the bat amongst the conifers or clouds. They were young, but both spent an inordinate amount of time wandering in the woods outside of their estates, often at the same time but never accompanying one another. Sometimes one of the children would be escorted by a man who looked to be from the desert country on the other side of the continent. The other was always alone. Both had keen eyes, eager for amusement, and would no doubt quickly spread news of a mountain bat sighting.

The bat himself would confess to being eager for amusement as well, if anyone would have understood him as he confessed and if he wasn’t thoroughly aware of what happened when people saw him. It was always one of the two same reactions: the bold ones attacked, leaving the bat no option but to strike back in spite of his reluctance, but most people just fled. They ran, they screamed, they trembled with fear until they had gotten far enough away and the mountain bat would not find them again.

It had become a fact of life, but he did not understand it. He did not harm or threaten or brutalize—he merely _lived_ , just as all humans did until they encountered a perceived threat and used it as an excuse to turn themselves into the aggressors.

Not, of course, that they thought of themselves as such. The bat could not understand the languages that humans spoke, but he still knew the meaning behind what they said in hushed whispers as they told frightening stories of a winged, serpentine bat who soared above the forested mountains. He was sure that these stories omitted the parts where he was at peace with the world and the sky, harming no soul until the humans’ antagonism.

Yes, it had definitely been for the best that he left those mountains behind and gone to a place where he could fly with less concern. It would be far easier to rationalize a large airborne shadow in an area that was not already prone to rumors about him.

Now here he was, many years later and without a sighting in all the time he had spent in and around the city of rivers. The mountain bat circled over the dense forests just south of that city. There was something about it that called to him, something he could not name or pinpoint even as it beckoned him down to the earth and through the tightly winding trees. It was not impossible to resist, but the peculiar feeling intrigued him enough for resistance to be quite out of the question.

The thing continued to tug him forward until he had come to a small clearing in the jungle, barely large enough for him to rest comfortably as he saw that this was not a thing at all, but a girl. She was alone, just as the two children from the mountains had typically been, but she appeared to be even younger. She looked different as well. Her hair was darker, her skin was paler, and her eyes were hazel instead of brown and ocean blue.

Most surprising of all, she did not shrink away when she saw the mountain bat. Instead, she did what no one ever did and drew closer. Her lip was trembling, but for once he did not think it was out of fear.

At the very least, he was not the one she feared, and this was…shocking. Wonderful, if he had to find another word for it, which he rarely did. Mountain bats were not overly fond of words. As a general rule, feelings were enough without adding the unnecessary complication of words, and now he was feeling very much.

Here was a human who approached him instead of fleeing, whose hand reached out toward him with gentleness instead of hostility. He instinctively leaned into her palm and, misjudging her strength, nearly knocked her over.

The girl righted herself again easily enough before creeping forward and flinging her small arms around him. Though he had never seen her before, he somehow still knew her—the fearlessness with which she embraced him, the loneliness causing her mouth to quiver before she had reached him, the very aura surrounding this girl that said she, if not the other hateful humans, could be trusted.

So the bat shielded her with his wings, the way he had seen the child who was always alone do with heavy cloaks and blankets when he occasionally spent the night in the dark forest instead of the walls of his home. From witnessing that, he knew that the action’s purpose was to provide warmth, but he hoped that it would also be comforting to the girl who seemed similarly solitary.

What he hadn’t expected was to feel just as much comfort as he was offering. It had been so long since he had been able to enjoy the presence of another creature without them fearing him, and he realized that perhaps it had not been amusement he used to seek, but merely company.

He had certainly found it now.

The girl fell asleep beneath his protective wings that night, and though he hadn’t intended to stay in the clearing for as long as he did, he found it impossible to leave her there. She was so young, even by human standards, but there was something about her that reminded him of himself: someone abandoned and misunderstood who desperately didn’t want to be alone anymore.

When she awoke, the girl blinked up at him with wide yet trusting eyes and began to speak to him. It was not in the confusing way that humans did, with their strings of sounds that supposedly held meanings but were filled with too many contradictions and differences for the bat to comprehend, but in the way of nature that spoke directly to his mind and allowed him to reciprocate through that strange connection they now shared.

 _You stayed_ , she said. There was no surprise or unexpected glee in her mental words, just the statement. As if it was only natural, but worth saying all the same.

The bat liked her even more for having said it, because somehow he already knew that she rarely spoke except for the things she found to be worth it.

 _Yes._ He lifted his wings, allowing her to rise if she wanted to. She sat before him, a small smile twisting her lips even as her eyes were distant and troubled. He liked her, but he did not like that look in her eyes. This girl had no human guardians to keep her safe, and thus it fell on the mountain bat to accept that role. _What do you need?_

She sat back on her heels with a sigh. _I_ _’m hungry._

He should have thought of that before now, because truly, who knew when this poor girl had last eaten? Food was easy enough for a mountain bat to find and come by, but a small child was not meant to fend for herself in the wild. The bat nudged her gently to let her know that he would return soon before he slipped through the trees in search of something that she might want.

It was harder than the bat would have expected. He found himself wondering what a human child would eat—the children in the mountains would sometimes bring food with them as they wandered through the frosty trees, but he was normally too far away to be able to pay attention to what they were actually eating. 

If he were foraging for no one but himself, his task would be an easy one, as he had found that most things in this forest were edible. But he did know that there were many things humans would not, or could not have, and he did not wish to bring harm to this girl by being careless.

Finally, he came upon something easily recognizable that he was fairly sure a person would enjoy as much as he did: a blueberry bush. He knew with certainty that these berries were not poisonous, and he found it difficult to believe that she would dislike the sweet taste.

Picking the blueberries would take too long. The mountain bat was not patient, and he now had a child to which he was obliged to return, so he tore the bush out of the ground in its entirety and began his return to the clearing. Roots and twigs dragged against the earth as he cleared the trees and dropped the bush in front of the waiting girl.

A delighted smile crept to her face, and she said something aloud for the first time. The bat could not understand any of the human languages, and hers was no different, but the short phrase had sounded like a happy one. She began picking berries off the bush and eating them, passing small handfuls to the bat as though sharing the gift he had given her.

The girl said the phrase again with an even wider smile, and he wrapped one of his wings around her shoulders while she ate.

From then on, the bat did not wander and fly aimlessly. He was bound to this girl and with her he would remain, wherever her journey would take her until she grew older and, if she still willed it then, after that. When they spoke, it was through the connection of minds that they shared, though she still said a few words in a human language from time to time. The phrase she’d said earlier was repeated often enough that he grew curious as to what it meant, though he refrained from asking through their bond until he found out for himself one day.

A group of people from the land of the vast plains had been trying to kidnap the girl— _his_ girl, and he had not allowed them to do it—and in the brief confusion, they had been separated as he attempted to track down the perpetrators and ensure that they would never come after her again. In his mind, he had heard her calling for his help, but he heard her voice too, repeating that phrase louder than he had thought was possible from a child so small. At once he had come to her aid and taken her away from the approaching attackers, but once they were gone it occurred to him that she had been calling for him with those words.

She had named him the very first day they met, and on the few occasions that she used her voice since then, it had been to say the name that she had given him.

They continued traveling together, and though the bat did not entirely understand what it was that had led them to each other, he was unspeakably grateful for it. He knew the girl was too, through her little kindnesses and gestures of trust and the time she had confessed, curled up beneath his wing, that she slept easier when he was with her.

Who was he to deny her such a simple thing that brought her comfort and happiness? Now whenever he soared high above the trees or searched the forest for something to eat, he made sure to return well before the girl started to grow tired so he could remain close by her as she fell asleep.

They passed weeks, then months like this together until the world, though no less complicated than before, became a place of peaceful familiarity and companionship rather than danger.

Until the girl was kidnapped. The mountain bat had been frantic in his endeavor to rescue her until he learned, with surprise, that someone else already had. The man who saved her brought her to a woman he traveled with, and by the time the bat caught up to them, he learned that she trusted the former like family and was significantly more wary of the latter. He mirrored her behavior towards them, gravitating more towards the girl than to anyone else but tolerating the man’s presence far more than he did the quiet woman’s.

After continuing on their journey together, and after the girl taught her companions the phrase that was his name, they came to a town. The girl told him to stay outside while they went on into the village, an instruction that she gave regretfully as she assured him that the man thought it would not be safe. The bat hated to leave her alone with a woman she disliked and a man that now appeared to be sick, but after all the company and happiness she had given him, her request was a small one. He remained outside of the town.

Later, he wished he had stayed. The girl returned to him quiet and upset, without the ill man and with a new man that she seemed to like, though not as well as the first, and the woman that she seemed to be growing fonder of the longer they spent time with each other. The bat was intrigued by the new addition to their company, which was a pity, as this man seemed to be mildly afraid of him. A few times he tried to say the bat’s name, and though he didn’t seem to pronounce it as well as the others did, the mountain bat found it kind that he would try at all.

Almost as soon as they reunited, though, he and the girl were separated again. This time they were high in the sky when she was attacked, and though he thought she must have been taken into the place where white-cloaked figures fought with one another, he could not find her. At long last, when the bat was considering the feasibility of simply diving at the people with cloaks until they released the girl, she emerged from the one of the forested mountain slopes and was nearly knocked to the ground by his overly energetic embrace.

 _Are you hurt?_ he asked. If she was, then he would commence his plan regardless.

 _No_ , she assured him, lingering in the safe warmth of his wings for a moment longer before pulling away and glancing behind him. _But they are still there._

The bat knew that she referred to the woman and the man who was afraid of him, but he could do little to find and retrieve them when this place was so large. As it turned out, he did not need to seek them out—the fighting amongst the cloaked people soon became a full battle, and as he searched for a way out of the range of fire, he came across the man surrounded by attackers. He was weaponless, and they were not, but it seemed that sharp blades did nothing to ease the mind of a half dozen people being rapidly approached by a mountain bat. They scattered, and the man looked up at him with wide eyes that were filled with gratitude. He said something to the bat between deep breaths, something that he did not understand but that he interpreted as an expression of thanks.

It was not long before they found the woman as well, though she paid more attention to the man and the girl than she did to the bat. She embraced both of them, her eyes glistening with tears as she spoke to both of them aloud in her joy upon their return.

The bat watched from behind the three of them. He had not been greeted by the woman, but he supposed that it did not matter. The man did not seem to be afraid of him anymore, and the girl was back with him again. That was far more than enough.

The only thing he would have really asked for would be for the first man, the one who had rescued the girl from her kidnappers, to return again. Though the bat had not known him exceptionally well, it would have brought a smile to the girl’s face to see him again, and that alone would be well worth it.

For now, they stopped in a glade while the woman continued forward to scout ahead and report back the land surrounding them. It seemed oddly familiar to the mountain bat ever since they had gone through that door, though he did not remark upon it. They would see it soon enough, and for now they could merely rest and be safe.

As it turned out, the world was far more complicated than he could have ever guessed it to be. The mountain bat huddled close to the girl and took comfort in the simplest things, that which would not change.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year, everyone!


End file.
